Blood clots contribute to the death of at least 100,000 Americans each year. Because many of these deaths occur suddenly where treatment is impossible, the best treatment is prevention. With this grant, researchers in Missouri, New York, Utah, Illinois, and Texas are developing strategies to improve the safety and effectiveness of clot prevention by customizing a popular blood thinner (warfarin) to each person's genetic and clinical profile. They hypothesize that the use of genetics to guide warfarin therapy will reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) postoperatively. They further hypothesize that using a target international normalized ratio (INR) of 1.8 is non-inferior to using a target INR of 2.5 in VTE prevention.

receiving or planning to receive any anticoagulant besides warfarin (if low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) or subcutaneous heparin is deemed necessary by the clinician after enrollment, such patients will be allowed to remain in the study)

unlikely to be compliant (e.g. due to history of non-compliance, or alcoholism)

known thrombophilia, bleeding disorder, or history of serious bleed in the past 2 years (unless caused by trauma)

personal history of venous thromboembolism

Contacts and Locations

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To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01006733